<p>I've posted about this before and have gotten a lot mixed responses. This question is a little different.
In general, from what I've read elsewhere online, the consensus is that doing an extra semester as an undergrad is a vulnerability for your law school application.
It's always said that if you can justify it by your particular course-work then it is acceptable but if you're taking an extra semester yet still earning only one major that it's surely a negative.
My question is what exactly would justify an extra semester. Earning a minor? 2 minors? a double major?
From what I understand, the a GPA seems more valuable if it was earned within the accepted normal time period of 8 semesters and if it was done so given normal sized course loads as opposed to another situation what would give an unfair advantage. like perhaps:
spreading courses over 9 semesters
AND/OR taking a part time semester to focus on only a couple classes at once
OR taking an extra semester to pad the GPA</p>
<p>That being said, if a part time semester is such negative, how would that differ from summer classes
Often times summer school is seen as an easier way to take classes since you take no<br>
more than 1 or 2 classes at a time.
If a student took 5 or 6 summer classes over 4 years I would think that would be
relevant to admissions committee when evaluating the strength of a students GPA</p>
<p>-Maybe I'm wrong about the summer school. Does anyone know how that might work?
-And what exactly is seen as an acceptable justification for an extra semester? Like I said, I sometimes hear your fine as long as you don't take 11 years to graduate and other sources stress the importance of a normal 8 semester route to graduation.</p>